Blossoms, Bulbs and Wildflowers

This was originally going to be 3 posts, but sometimes my plans don't happen as planned. Huh? Anyway....lots of pictures today, but not too much to say. See, it all balances out.

We were at the farm last weekend...and there were a lot of things blooming! The farm is only about 70 miles northeast of where we live, but things bloom there a good week or even later than they do here in the suburbs. My mom has several flowering trees...crab apples I guess...I don't know much about flowering trees except that they are beautiful in the spring!

She has one that has dark pink blossoms....

...and some with variegated pink and white blossoms....

....and one with pure white blossoms.

More variegated....

Aren't they pretty? When the blossoms fall the petals look like a carpet covering the ground. Sometimes I wonder why the trees there bloom so beautifully....

....and then it becomes clear. They are well fertilized! Hi Skylar...yes...that means you!

There are some bulbs blooming there too. Tulips...isn't this one pretty!

It's pretty up close too.

I like this pinky orangy one. And I like making up words.

There were a few white daffodils as well. I couldn't decide which of these two pictures I liked better, so I posted both.

Did you know that not deciding is a decision in itself. Hah....the horses aren't the only ones producing manure.

Smile, we're heading into the woods now. Wild violets in purple....

...and in yellow.

The maiden hair fern have opened up. I love when the regular ferns start opening, they unroll and remind me of prehistoric times. I guess I should have taken a picture of one since I'm talking about it...but I didn't. Just the maiden hair.

Eric and I took a little walk and found a whole hillside just covered with Spring Beauties. They are delicate little white flowers with pink stripes, about the same size as the hepatica...their blossoms are about the size of a nickel.

Aren't they pretty?

They are sort of hard to see in amongst the fallen leaves, but the hill side was covered. I've never seen so many. There was wild Phlox blooming here too...do you see the purple in front of the tree.

Back to the spring beauty.

The bees were busy pollinating. Bzzzzzzzz.......

We had hiked out to take the pictures after church, you can see the size of the flower compared to my boot.

Some more wild phlox.

There was a big patch of phlox blooming in front of some lime green skunk cabbage leaves...it looked like a pretty bouquet.

Here they are next to my boot to see the size. And to see my boot. I love my boots!

You can't take a walk on the farm without a companion, or two, or three. Here's Murphy. Taking pictures of flowers is interesting when you have a big ole' dog in your face...and underfoot ...and stepping on everything. But they are so happy to be on an adventure that it's all worth it.

Here's a close up of the phlox....right after I wiped the dog slobber off the lens. Yuck.

When we got back I ventured into my mom's backyard where she has a very special trillium blooming.

Dark red blossoms instead of white. Isn't it pretty? I forgot to get a picture of the whole plant, it's really big this year, with a lot of flowers...but the flowers are smaller than normal.

Every year things are just a little bit different.

It's what keeps life interesting. Wouldn't we be bored if we always knew how things would turn out?

Here are some white trillium, these were blooming along the side of the cabin. The woods didn't seem to be as full of them as in other years.

But they are blooming, pristine white and lush green.

Blossoms, bulbs and wildflowers....each one of them a miracle of spring. How lucky are we to be surrounded by so much beauty? You just have to take the time to look up, or down, or around to see it. The end.